Lot 394
  • 394

Pablo Picasso

Estimate
120,000 - 180,000 USD
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Description

  • Pablo Picasso
  • Portrait de Hortensio Güell
  • Signed P. Ruiz Picasso and inscribed Hortensio Güell a la edad de 20 años (Madrid) (lower center)
  • Charcoal on paper
  • 11 3/8 by 8 5/8 in.
  • 28.8 by 21.9 cm

Provenance

The Margo Feiden Galleries, New York
Private Collection, Zurich (and sold: Sotheby's, London, April 5, 1989, lot 312)
Frost & Reed, Ltd., London (acquired at the above sale)
Private Collection, Canada (acquired from the above in December 1989)
Thence by descent

Exhibited

Barcelona, Picasso Museum of Barcelona, Picasso and Els 4CATS: The Early Years in Turn-of-the-Century Barcelona, 1996, no. 11, illustrated in the catalogue

Literature

Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso Vivo (1881-1907), Barcelona, 1980, no. 232, illustrated p. 139

Condition

This work is in very good condition. Executed on cream-colored laid paper. The medium is well-preserved. Hinged to the mount at two places along the top edge on the verso. The edges are unevenly cut. The sheet is slightly time-stained and a horizontal crease with an associated repaired tear runs across half the sheet below the figure. There are also minor repairs to the extreme bottom right corner and bottom edge, as well as nail-head and pin dot sized repairs near the composition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Hortensio Güell was a Catalan artist and writer whom Picasso befriended at the Academy in Madrid while he was a student from 1897-98. Hortensio was a member of the Güell Family, patrons of the artist Antoni Gaudí who commissioned him to build the Güell Park in Barcelona. Shortly after this portrait was completed Güell committed suicide, one in a series of losses Picasso experienced as a young man.

It is likely that this work was included in Picasso's very first one-man exhibition in February 1900 at Barcelona's center of the avant-garde, Els Quatre Gats, where a number of charcoal portraits of the artist's friends were shown.